NEIL LENNON has thrown down an eve-of-season gauntlet to his players – demanding they bust a gut to deliver the Treble.

The Celtic manager reckons his squad is capable of completing a domestic clean sweep in the absence of Rangers from the top flight – but only if they knuckle down to the task and ignore those who say the title will be won by Christmas.

Lennon insists that kind of talk is disrespectful to the rest of the SPL and he won’t hesitate to bin any of his players who fall into thetrap of believing it. But the Parkhead boss is convinced his men will keep their focus on the task at hand.

He said: “Any player who is complacent will be dropped. But the one thing I can guarantee is there will be no complacency from the players.

“There is no change there, regardless of the situation in the league.

“I want players here who are hungry and challenging for places. No one is guaranteed their position.”

When asked if anyone at the club is paying attention to the bookmakers – some of whom are taking odds on Celtic going through the season undefeated – Lennon said: “That’s just speculative and disrespectful to the clubs. We don’t see it that way.

“We’re looking forward to defending the title and looking forward to the competitiveness of this league.

“It will give other clubs an opportunity to strive to get to the top.

“We are obviously the heavy favourites, I understand that.

“But we probably would have been heavy favourites anyway – we’re just heavier with Rangers not being there.

“But I give short shrift to the people who say the season is going to be over quickly.”

That doesn’t stop him wanting his players to win everything this season.

He said: “We’ve come close to the Treble on a couple of occasions in recent seasons – and that's something we’ll throw down to the players as a challenge.”

But he admits this will be a season like no other due to the fact he won’t be going head to head with Ally McCoist’s Third Division Rangers outfit.

Lennon said: “It’s going to be different. It will be strange not having that sort of nip and tuck.

“But we have to deal with that. It’s going to be a new experience for all of Scottish football. It will be no different for us.

“But we’ve got to get our noses in front, stay there and show a level of consistency.”